Top 10 budget restaurants and cafes on the north Kent coast

The north Kent coast, known for its oysters, art scene and beaches, is a joy in summer, but where to eat well on a budget? Here are 10 restaurants and cafes in Whitstable, Herne Bay, Margate and Ramsgate that do the job for under £10 a head

Wheelers Oyster Bar and David Brown Delicatessen, both in Whitstable. Photographs: Alamy and Justin Sutcliffe

Wheelers Oyster Bar, Whitstable & JoJo's Coffee House, Tankerton

If you know these two at all, it will be as very good and fairly upmarket restaurants. However, both Wheelers, which dates to 1856, and the much more modern JoJo's – a mile or two away in neighbouring Tankerton – have affordable arms that the budget traveller can enjoy. Don't be put off if the four stools at Wheelers cramped shop counter are already taken. You can pick up crab sandwiches, fantastic quiches (the crab and Béarnaise tartlets are seriously addictive), or make up your own portable fish platter, including your pick of rock oysters (half dozen, open to takeaway, £4.50), prawns, smoked eel, roll mops, hot smoked salmon etc. Nip across the road to the Offy (5 High Street) to grab a couple of cold beers from its wide selection of Kentish ales (from £1.79) and you have a meal fit for a king. If you're looking for a late sunset supper, both Wheelers and the Offy are open until 9pm.

Meanwhile, on the headland at Tankerton, the coffee shop at Nikki Billington's JoJo's (where, famously, you're charged double corkage if you BYO from Tesco) serves brilliant cakes, simple but good quality breakfast sandwiches, salads and seasonal specials. Some of the posh sandwiches (£6.95) – including a mean fish finger butty – probably don't offer as much bang for your buck as the stews. These might range, as the year progresses, from a sticky, wintry beef cheek number, to a more summery chicken, chorizo and red pepper one-pot. On a warm day, the patio area is a real sun trap. • Wheelers: lunch from around £4, £10 a head would net you a handsome picnic; 8 High Street, Whitstable, 01227 273311, wheelersoysterbar.com. JoJo's: breakfast £1.25-£3.50, sandwiches and mains £3.50-£7.95; 2 Herne Bay Road, Tankerton, Whitstable, 01227 274591, jojosrestaurant.co.uk

Windy Corner Stores, Whitstable

This is a little off the main tourist drag but word is clearly out. On a sweltering day, Windy – part quirky corner shop, part serious foodie cafe – was packed. Little wonder, given the quality of my Moroccan lamb served with an assortment of jazzy, gourmet salads. The north African spicing was a little meek, but it barely mattered. The slices of explosively juicy, remarkably flavoursome lamb were cooked perfectly and ridged with caramelised fat. Elsewhere, the menu takes in interesting soups, sandwiches and salads, as well as other daily specials, such as orange-roasted pork or butternut squash and roasted vegetable frittata. Everything is available to takeaway, to the nearby beach, including beer (from £1.60, Red Stripe). It's a little cheaper if you do that, too. On a busy day, the service was stretched, but friendly. • Breakfast £1.20-£7, lunch from £3.50. 110 Nelson Road, Whitstable, 01227 771707, Facebook page

David Brown Delicatessen, Whitstable

Photograph: Justin Sutcliffe

Eager to get off the gastro trail and try somewhere with a local, rather than DFL (down from London) following, I wanted to run the rule over Howard's Kitchen (mains £5.45-£8.75). However, it was shutting early, so, rather than "hearty, no-frills, home-cooked food", I had to settle for the affordable excellence of the delicatessen and bar, David Brown.

It's a tiny place, with the bar as close as you will come in the UK to the look and feel of a Spanish neighbourhood joint. There is a menu of small and sharing plates served into the evening (sandwiches, cured meats and cheeses, pork terrine, £2-£6), but the real bargain here is the lunch menu served from midday until 3pm. It's short: three nominal starters, one dessert, one hot main dish, but, drinking tap water, you could eat two courses for under £10. My plate of beautifully charred, perfectly pink feather steak –with a mess of soft, sharp lentils, seasoned with balsamic, basil, a little red pepper and onion – was fantastic. It wasn't the biggest plate of food I've ever eaten, but for £6.50 and rounded-off with a rather good pastel de nata (£1.25) from the deli next door, it felt like a treat. • Lunch dishes £3-£6.50. 28a Harbour Street, Whitstable, 01227 274507

The Wallflower Cafe, Herne Bay

Wallflower cafe

Hidden in an unpromising arcade on the High Street, the Wallflower is a laidback, faintly hippyish hang out. There is soothing folk music, you order at a brightly painted wooden counter, and, for 40p, you can add a shot of wheatgrass to your smoothie. Yum. The menu runs from sandwiches to specials, such as pan-fried rainbow trout, with around 50% of the options vegetarian. The falafel with pitta and hummus (the latter cleverly lifted with a little sun-dried tomato) comes as a huge plateful, which includes a mint-spiked tabbouleh and two generous and elaborate portions of salad. The falafel could have been more robustly seasoned and herbed, but they were ineffably light. All in all, the Wallflower is a cafe going that vital extra yard. • Sandwiches £2.50-£3.50, meals £5-£8. 116 High Street, Herne Bay, 01227 740392, Facebook page

Great British Pizza Co, Margate

If Margate can be said to have a trendy, boho quarter, it's in and around the old town, the Market Place and the Parade, where you'll find vintage shops, art galleries, newer independent cafes and, just around the corner, on the front, this pizzeria – which is doing very good things indeed with Kent ingredients and a wood-fired oven. The restaurant itself is very now, in that it looks half-finished and features, as a centrepiece, a large, colourful portrait of a dog. Its menu is equally on point, with combinations such as parma ham and nectarine, and pear and cambozola blue cheese reflecting a new readiness among Britain's artisan pizzeria to innovate. I chose from the menu's more sedate core, but my sample ham and mushroom nonetheless sang with flavour. The base was surprisingly thin – ultra-slim, almost flatbread – but so fresh and easily digested that it banished any reservations. The tomato sauce, meanwhile, was supremely vibrant, one of most intense I have ever tasted. Flavourful ham and sweet pools of mozzarella (the toppings may look a bit sparse, but it's actually well-judged) sealed the deal. If you can stretch to it, you can round off your meal with tubs (£3.50) of ice-cream from, arguably, the country's best gelato maker, Gelupo of Soho, London.

The Lifeboat, Margate

Photograph: Alamy

This former wine bar is a pretty convincing recreation of a late-Victorian beer house (sawdust on the floor; four real ales gravity-dispensed from a rack of barrels), down to the refreshingly no-nonsense food menu. Weirdly, all the seafood was off on this visit, but elsewhere the Kentish-sourced menu includes savoury tarts, cheeses, sausages and a selection of puddings and pies. Served with a huge hillock of buttery mash and a dab of mustard and no veg, my pie meal (£5.50) was a very beige plate of food. But the soft shortcrust pastry yielded easily, and it was packed with chunks of moist, fibrous, falling-apart steak in a rich and well-rounded ale gravy. Washed down with a pint of Goachers' hoppy, refreshing Fine Light (£3), it hit the spot. The Lifeboat also has a sister venue in Broadstairs, the Chapel (44-46 Albion Street), which also offers good beer and simple, affordable food. • Snacks £2.50-£3, meals £4.50-£8. 1 Market Street, Margate, 07837 024259, thelifeboat-margate.com

Fort's Cafe, Margate

Located on a shabby stretch of Margate seafront, this artsy, creative hang-out (The Cure playing at breakfast; vintage, mismatched Formica tables; a lone glitter ball for decoration) feels like a little slice of east London by the sea. If you're the sort of person who throws the word "hipster" around as an accusation, you're not going to like it. Which will leave the rest of us to appreciate a venue that – with top regional ingredients, sharp cooking, very keen prices – is a real find. From the breakfast menu, a large, doorstep of rarebit (£3.50, two for £4.50) was exemplary. The toasted sourdough had a real lactic twang, while the rarebit topping was a proper smooth, stout-loosened paste, with a powerfully spicy (extra mature) tang to it. Top that with an egg for a £1, and it's as good a breakfast as you'll eat. A flat white (£2) was a little thin, the milk hadn't been thoroughly textured, but at least it had been dosed correctly so that it actually tasted of coffee, not just hot milk. At lunch the menu expands to include burgers, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, macaroni cheese and specials such as a warm scotch egg with an allotment salad or cider braised pigs' cheek on toast. Fort's is licensed and open into the evening on Friday and Saturday. • Breakfast £2-£6.95, lunch £3.50-£7. 8 Cliff Terrace, Margate, 01843 449786, fortscafe.co.uk

Caffe Alma, Margate

The space that Caffe Alma occupies - part of the groundfloor of Westcoast live music venue - may look a bit tired in the cold light of day, but there is plenty of va-va-voom to chef-owner Shanda Fernandes's cooking. The focus is on Iberian and South American dishes, ranging from typical Brazilian nibbles (the coxinha – bread-crumbed, deep-fried "thighs" of shredded chicken – are beautiful, £1.60), to paella, piri-piri gambas, bacalhau pie and irregular specials, such as pork belly and bean stew, or mukeka, a rich, Brazilian seafood stew. I was there in the run up to the Margate Soul Weekend, when Caffe Alma was serving its specials at £5 a pop, which made my chicken salad an absolute bargain. It didn't necessarily look much, just grilled, shredded thigh and leg meat over leaves and tomato, but it tasted sensational. Clever marinating and dressing had given the juicy meat a wonderful salty, sharply fruity zing. Every mouthful was a double helix of flavour. I couldn't stop eating it. Which, when reviewing 12 or more places in 24 hours, is dangerous. • Snacks, tapas and soups £1.50-£5.90, meals £7.90. 3-5 King Street, Margate, 01843 447522; caffealma.com

The Greedy Cow, Margate

This compact takeaway and cafe, which has outdoor seating on Market Place, is Margate's go-to kitchen for "dirty" burgers and salt beef sandwiches. My hefty mound of pulled pork on a locally baked bun was a creditable version, moist with plenty of gelatinous fat in the mix. The BBQ sauce was sweet and zippy but not overpowering, and the homemade coleslaw on the side – good onion flavour, but really lifted by a little shaved fennel – was fantastic. Had I been staying in Margate for a few days, I would have definitely been back for the borderline sexist, but hugely appetising gents' burger (topped with bacon, black pudding, salt beef), hopefully followed by a Greedy Cow special, such as its salted caramel brownie or baked custard cream cheesecake. • Breakfast £2.50-£5.50, sandwiches, burgers, etc £4-£7.50. 3 Market Place, Margate, 01843 447557, Facebook page

Caboose, Ramsgate

Cafe, bar, late-night music and comedy venue, Caboose is a local cultural hub, which also serves locally-sourced food at competitive prices, from breakfast eggs benedict through to afternoon salads and sandwiches. The menu then changes on Wednesday to Saturday evenings into a rather more expensive Mexican mix of quesadillas, burritos and fajitas. A homemade burger looked a bit underwhelming – a small-ish beef patty on half a ciabatta roll – but worked surprisingly well, bulked out into a big plate of food with fries and coleslaw . Properly seared, so that it had developed a good caramelised crust, the patty had been well-seasoned, not least with onion and possibly garlic, to give it depth, yet – and this is rarer than you'd think – its beefy flavour still shone through. All told, for £5.95, it was good value. If visiting you would be wise to check-out Caboose's regular offers (Wednesday's £7 burger-and-pint deal, for example), although you may be tempted off-piste by its compact selection of local ales (Wantsum Dynamo, Gadds' No.3) and international craft beers (from £3.20).

Just around the corner from Caboose, you will find what is commonly regarded as Ramsgate's best restaurant, Age & Sons. Outside of Thursday's steak night (burger £6.50; rump cap £8.50), it is generally a shade too expensive for this series' £10-a-head price limit. However, it does serve a two-course vegetarian lunch for £9.95. This commemorates the founding of the Vegetarian Society in Ramsgate in 1847. Who knew? • Breakfast £2.50-£6, lunch £2.75-£6, evening mains £6.50-£9.95. 18 Queen's Street, Ramsgate, 01843 570984, caboosecafe.co.uk

Travel between Manchester and London was provided by Virgin Trains (virgintrains.co.uk). Accommodation in Margate was provided by the Walpole Bay Hotel (walpolebayhotel.co.uk, doubles from £85 B&B), an Edwardian property with many period features and a whole floor-cum-"living museum" packed with antiques, artefacts and ephemera. For more information, go to visitkent.co.uk